Bay Area Regional Energy Innovation Cluster
Providing Bay Area energy entrepreneurs with services and resources to further their innovations
Activate Global, Inc
Recipient
Berkeley, CA
Recipient Location
7th
Senate District
14th
Assembly District
$7,461,624
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In 2024, Activate continued to implement its two-year fellowship program providing clean energy entrepreneurs access to world-class research facilities, a startup curriculum, and rigorous mentorship, and an extensive network of industry, investors, philanthropists, and government partners. By the end of 2024, Activate had supported over 100 fellows across 78 companies in California.
Activate continues to bring on even more cohorts of innovators to its Berkeley community - in 2024 the program brought on fellows developing chemical-free lithium extraction and purification solutions, ultra-compact smart transformers leverage high-frequency power electronics, power efficient manufacturing robotics, and long duration thermal energy storage. Also in 2024, Activate received additional funding from the U.S. Department of Energy allowing a doubling of the number of fellows supported through Cyclotron Road.
The Issue
Clean energy startups face difficulties in making use of the existing programs and resources available in the area, and accessing technology validation facilities, business training, market intelligence, and more. In particular, venture capital investment, the main source of private sector support for early stage technology companies, has declined sharply for hard energy technology in the past several years. Unfortunately, no reliable, alternate source of private capital has emerged, due to the high risks associated with early stage energy technology development.
Project Innovation
This project established the Bay Area Regional Energy Innovation Cluster by scaling the Activate Fellowship to provide commercialization support services to Bay Area entrepreneurs developing breakthrough materials and hardware devices in energy efficiency, energy storage, distribution, grid management, and power generation. Activate Berkeley provides entrepreneurs access to world-class laboratory facilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and key services, such as business model development, customer discovery, and intellectual property protection to enable energy entrepreneurs in the Bay Area region.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This project will help advance the goals of Senate Bill 350 (De Leon, 2015) by accelerating the commercialization of clean energy technologies, including energy efficiency, demand response, renewable generation, energy storage, and smart-grid integration. This project will increase the probability of commercialization and deployment of a portfolio of technologies that can reduce electricity costs, decrease peak demand, and improve system reliability and safety. Intangible benefits to California ratepayers will result from broader, indirect, and multiplicative economic effects that occur from the successful establishment of California-based technology companies.
Affordability
This project will decrease the time and costs for new technology development by providing entrepreneurs with the services and facilities they need to commercialize their technology.
Economic Development
This project will help facilitate successful clean energy entrepreneurship, leading to increased private sector investment and local job creation. As of Cohort 2023, over 70 companies have been accepted into the program.
Key Project Members
Jill Fuss
Katie Sharp
Subrecipients
Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Regents of the University of California, Davis
Match Partners
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Autodesk, Inc.
Activate Global, Inc
DLA Piper LLP
